Yesterday’s snorkelling adventure was at Sturdee Street Cove in Esquimalt, BC. Having been in the water here multiple times, I wanted to take another look around before entry and exit are made much more awkward by an abundance of seasonal kelp. This first video (above) shows the access stairs and the shore. The Esquimalt Harbour tide height was 0.8 m so there was plenty of beach for getting changed but not too much broken rock to walk across at the water’s edge.
This next video shows a 360 degree view of the area as seen from as far out as I had to swim in order to get to water that was 5 m deep. The cove is the middle one between the one at the end of Foster Street to the west, in the direction of Deniston Park, and the one at the end of Nelson Street to the east, in the direction of Saxe Point Park. In order to take advantage of the afternoon sun on such a clear day, I worked my way along the shore until I was within sight of Dog Beach on the west side of Saxe Point.
The water temperature was 8 C and the visibility was at most 5 metres. This third video includes some of what I saw close to the surface. Artificial light was used for some of the creatures that were in the shadows of rocky outcrops.
- 00:04 Kelp crab
- 00:15 Bright red anemone
- 00:30 Different view of same anemone
- 00:37 Bull kelp very early in the season
- 01:07 Crab
- 01:29 Colours with natural light
- 02:16 Two sea stars
- 02:33 Painted anemone (open)
- 02:41 Open painted anemone adjacent to a smaller closed one
- 03:19 Coraline algae among kelp
- 03:27 Blue branching seaweed
- 03:44 Short wide anemone with pink bands on white tentacles
- 04:13 Blood star with kelp
- 04:34 Rock scallop
- 04:39 Blood star
- 05:32 White plumose anemone with sponges nearby
